


Patchwork Soldier

by DevinePhoenix



Category: Bleach
Genre: Gen, Muteness, Near Death Experiences, Serious Injuries, no beta we die like men
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-22
Updated: 2019-12-22
Packaged: 2021-02-26 03:35:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,119
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21906841
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DevinePhoenix/pseuds/DevinePhoenix
Summary: URAICHI PC#4 - SilenceWhen they wake up, they will have to deal with what their decisions have wrought. He will have to cope with his injuries and Kisuke will have to cope with his scars and guilt. But they still have time before that morning of uncertainty. In the dusty twilight of the Soul King’s realm, they could rest together and dream of a better ending.
Relationships: Kurosaki Ichigo/Urahara Kisuke
Comments: 6
Kudos: 125
Collections: UraIchi Prompt Challenge #4





	Patchwork Soldier

**Author's Note:**

> Lol, so my two fics for this event are for the same prompt. ¯\\_(ツ)_/¯

When things are over, they are left with silence. A heavy quiet of a place, of a people, of a person.

It was a war. Multiple people are dead and gone, silent and cold forevermore. Hundreds more are grievously injured, bleeding out and screaming. People have lost limbs, lost friends, lost loved ones. Those that are well enough not to scream are grim and subdued and quiet. No one has the energy to shout or muster any exuberance. Eventually, they will have to get back up and rebuild their lives, but for now they are quiet and muffled.

Kisuke could count himself as lucky in the grand scheme of things. He still had all his limbs. for all that his eyes had been damaged terribly, he was the Fixer, he could put himself back together. It wasn’t without scarring of course, but he was alive and whole and capable of moving forward which was enough. More than enough.

However, Ichigo could not put himself back together.

Ichigo was not same kind of fixer as Kisuke, the one who wove techniques together to find the impossible solutions to hopeless problems. Ichigo was the other half of the coin to Kisuke, the fixer that _acted_ , that took Kisuke’s impossible solutions and made them real.

By the time Kisuke got to him amidst the ruins of the Soul King’s realm, mere minutes after the end of his fight with Ywach, it is almost too late. Ichigo is choking on his own blood. Viscous, bright, bright red spills from his lips and throat endlessly. Wet coughs rip from his chest as he desperately gasps for oxygen as his own blood fills his lungs and tries to drown him. His throat was a bloody, ragged mess, a desperate blow of a near god about to be dethroned.

If Kisuke was a few seconds slower, the hero of the war would’ve been found dead in the throne room, one more terrible tragedy on top of the rest.

Even as it is, it is an impossible, fatal wound. If Kisuke was anyone else, they would be only be able to watch Ichigo bleed out in front of them.

But Kisuke was the one to find his other half, his soldier, and he was The Fixer.

So, he Fixed.

He works on his hero, with the last dregs of his reiatsu, with no resource close to hand and not enough willpower to fight his bloody princess for control if she rages. It is part of the reason he rarely uses her Bankai, in combat she is a double-edged sword. When she rages out of control, even their Allies are decimated around them. It is only good fortune that she likes Ichigo.

Their patchwork soldier that they have created from high quality clay. Ichigo is their masterpiece. And it thrills her, and him, _for what is she but all his bloody instincts from deep down_ , that their warrior will forever carry the mark of her scars. Neat patchwork lines across his throat to match with the new ones across his eyes and down his face. These scars are the price of his meatball reconstruction. Neither of them will ever be whole again, but they will match with their patchwork scars.

Kisuke wants him to live. He wants him to live more than he has wanted anything else in his entire life. And he’s wanted a great many things in his life. Thankfully, he also has some skill to back up that soul deep _wantneedpleasepleaseplease_. He’s the best medic available at short notice, with Unohana gone. It won’t be pretty, but it will be functional. Benihime is a bloody mad princess, more suited to tearing apart people and reconstructing them wrong for fun. But he knows he can do it, _she_ can do it.

They are betting on their patchwork soldier’s life that they can do it.

When have they ever let him down?

He focuses on arteries and muscle and tissue and putting the blood in his lungs back into his veins. Keep that brave heart beating and that precious oxygen flowing. The vocal cords are an afterthought next to the vital tissue that will keep Ichigo alive. But when he reaches that last vital thing, there is nothing he can do. He is too low on reiatsu, the cords too damaged. They were not just severed in two but crushed to fine powder with the force of the blow. It was a miracle Ichigo still he his head, with the amount of damage he had. Kisuke may be good, but even he cannot reconstruct something so delicate from powder while exhausted.

* * *

When Ichigo wakes up, it is to Kisuke, dear foolish Kisuke, ( _what had happened to his face?)_ leaning over him with threads on his fingers like fine gossamer silk and a looming figure in crimson above him. He knows without asking, her threads still deep in his soul that she must be the infamous bloody red princess. Kisuke had always been evasive when he asked about Benihime’s Bankai and now he knows why. She feels vast and wide and terrible and so _very inhuman_. But in that vast, uncaring a bloody reiatsu, he can feel the spark of deep care that is Kisuke and he knows that this monster would never hurt him.

His throat aches like skin drawn tight.

There is an odd emptiness.

He wants to call Kisuke’s name, thank him, ask him to formally introduce him to Benihime. But when he opens his mouth, nothing comes out of his lips but a wheeze of air. He tries again, and then again. No noise leaves his mouth.

Kisuke’s face crumples like tissue. The fragile veneer of calm replaced by _devastation_.

“I’m sorry.” He sobbed, blood from his own injuries leaking into the tears. “I’m sorry!”

Above them Benihime shatters into nothingness as Kisuke finally runs dry of reiatsu and keels over mid sob. Ichigo lets out a _whuff_ of air when that blond head collides with his chest. He may be tired beyond words, scraped dry and remade again and again and _again_ , but he has strength enough to rest a hand on that dusty, bloody, blond head.

When they wake up, they will have to deal with what their decisions have wrought. He will have to cope with a voiceless and silent existence and Kisuke will have to cope with his scars and guilt. Maybe Kisuke will succeed in properly healing his throat when he is well rested, and the problem will go away. But they still have time before that morning of uncertainty. In the dusty twilight of the Soul King’s realm, they could rest together and dream of a better ending.

**Author's Note:**

> Sooooooo I had intended to draw some art of Ichigo and Kisuke lying down together in the wreckage but then I realized I definitely don't have enough skill or time to pull that off.
> 
> It's up to everyone, if Kisuke manages to heal him or not. Both ways are interesting. On the one hand, Kisuke is Science GOD. If anyone can fix Ichigo, It would be him. On the other hand, there's so many neat ways things can go if he _can't_. Angst, hurt/comfort or crack inventions that Kisuke makes to help Ichigo compensate.


End file.
